Construction has begun at 1125 West Van Buren

Posted on February 18, 2020 by danieldschell

Dirt is being disrupted at 1125 West Van Buren. No glamour. Just heavy equipment doing the dirty work. But soon progress will be highly visible from the Eisenhower Expressway. It’s the start of what will be 20 stories and 200 apartments in a tower designed by Antunovich Associates for Tandem. For now, Keller NA has their distinctive blue & gold equipment on site, handling the caisson work.

A tower crane permit was issued February 6, followed by the building permit on the 11th. That means Tandem, acting once again as developer and CG, is good to go vertical. They hope to have 1125 open to residents next summer.

Stuff That’s Done: Renelle on the River

Posted on February 18, 2020 by danieldschell

Renelle on the River, from Across the River.

Renelle on the River is an 18-story condominium tower in the River North neighborhood. It was built atop an existing parking garage at 403 North Wabash Ave once topped by a small plaza park. The garage was built with future use in mind, so no additional caissons were required. It was a unique project to watch get started.

Renelle on the River is a design by bKL Architecture, and was built by James McHugh Construction. Developer Belgravia Group delivered its 50 condos to residents last year.

: Renelle on the River (403 North Wabash)

: Renelle on the River (403 North Wabash)

: Renelle on the River (403 North Wabash)

: Plaza demolition as of August.

Peoria Green tears up a parking lot

Posted on February 18, 2020 by danieldschell

Tear. It. Up.

The Tetris-shaped parking lot that will soon become Peoria Green is no more. (Is Tetris-shaped a thing? I couldn’t come up with a better way to describe this site. It’s like a long rectangle that broke, and healed wrong. Or a long rectangle with seismic plates that shifted, rendering it askew yet still in one piece.) It’s a funky lot. But at least it isn’t pavement anymore.

Soon it will be a six-story, 25-condominium development from ZSD Corp. And according to the Peoria Green website, only three of those condos remain unspoken for. And now that ground has broken, we can look for some deeper digging soon.

Sullivan Goulette & Wilson is the design firm behind Peoria Green. General contractor duties will be handled by Maris Construction. They’ve teamed up previously in the West Loop on CA Washington.

3300 North Clark almost has a tower crane

Posted on February 17, 2020 by danieldschell

Do you even lift, Bruh? Not quite yet.

Assembly of a tower crane at 3300 North Clark began last week, and as of the weekend, there’s almost a tower crane on Power Construction’s site. For now, it looks more like the Washington Monument than a monument to heavy lifting, but no doubt it’ll be operational within the next few days. And then the eight-story Panorama residential development from Blitzlake Partners and bKL Architecture can start rising off the ground.

369 West Grand starts glassing up the joint

Posted on February 17, 2020 by danieldschell

First Glass Post for 369 West Grand.

Last time I walked by 369 West Grand, I caught a milestone; Onni Group was jumping the tower crane. And here it is another week, and another milestone achievement for the Canadian developer/builder: the first few pains of glass have been installed for the tower’s curtain wall.

As is almost always the case, I have photos to prove it:

Old Town Park goes for the triple play

Posted on February 17, 2020 by danieldschell

The Third Edition of Old Town Park rises in Near North.

This is Tower #3 at Old Town Park, the new development from Onni Group that used to be Atrium Village. Just one building from Atrium Village remains, as this third apartment tower rises at 228 West Hill Street. When completed, it will deliver 456 rental units across its 41 stories.

As they’ve done with the first two tower of Old Town Park, the residential building The Hudson, and at the under-construction 369 West Grand, Onni Group is both the developer and general contractor. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is the design architect. Adjustable Concrete is the concrete contractor. I’m including them because they’ve got a couple sweet overhead shots from early construction on their website.

Sometimes I forget where I’ve been and what I’ve done. And with that I admit the following photos are more than two weeks old, having been snapped on February 2. If I hadn’t told you, you’d have never known. But still, I’m sorry for the delay. I try to keep content fresh around here.

: Tower 2 in the background.

Stuff That’s Done: Coeval

Posted on February 13, 2020 by danieldschell

Coeval has two addresses: 51 East 14th St. and 1419 South Wabash. Ave

I had surgery on a knee as a young adult. I was fascinated by the effects of anesthesia. One moment after drifting off to sleep, my eyes popped open in the recovery room. To me, the surgery happened faster than the snap of the fingers. Like time travel in Back To The Future.

Those questionable analogies are a means of explaining Coeval. I stopped by 14th and Wabash twice; once during demolition of 1415 South Wabash, and once as the rolling crane was being set up on the freshly-demoed lot. The third time I visited, this past week, Coeval was open. Heck, I didn’t even know it was called Coeval until now. If only construction could be instantaneous like that.

Coeval is a two-towered apartment development from CMK Companies. Consisting of a 14-story tower to the north, and a 10-story tower to the south, the project contains about 260 units in total. It was designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners and built by Clark Construction. It opened to residents last summer.

The tower crane I missed at Aspire is missed no more

Posted on February 12, 2020 by danieldschell

You all are The. Best.

Just a day after I posted about not making it to 2111 South Wabash in time to snap the tower crane, Robert Burke comes along and fills my inbox with photos. Crane going up, crane coming down, crane building a building, the whole sequence. Thank you, Robert!

All photos are from Robert Burke:

2111 South Wabash Aspires to be clad all over

Posted on February 11, 2020 by danieldschell

Aspire Residences, at 2111 South Wabash, glassing up the joint.

Our final project to top out in 2019 – congrats to the team at 2111 S Wabash on reaching the top elevation of their 24-story mixed-use tower! @PMAGetsIt @ujamaaconstruct @draperandkramer @scbchicago pic.twitter.com/LSLvXvtDxr

— Power Construction (@Power_Construct) December 16, 2019

That’s Power Construction in the tweet above, letting the world know about the topping out of 2111 South Wabash in the South Loop back in December. That same week, Draper & Kramer, the developer of 2111, announced not only the topping out, but also the project’s new name — Aspire Residences.

The 24-story, 275-unit apartment building took down the tower crane in late January. (A tower crane I saw, but didn’t get a photo of. I hate missing them.) Aspire is a design by SCB. It’s on schedule to open this summer.

Stuff That’s Done: Union West

Posted on February 10, 2020 by danieldschell

Union West is 357-unit apartment development in the West Loop. Its two 15-story towers occupy a large portion of the city block bounded by Washington, Sangamon, Madison, and Morgan, with part of its footprint touching all four streets. It was designed by bKL Architecture for ZOM Living. Power Construction was on the build.

Union West opened in Fall 2019.